Alan Caplan

Alan Caplan was born and raised in Johannesburg, South Africa. He was an active member of Bnei Zion and, subsequently, Habonim following the merger of the two movements. The year after high school he attended the South African Airforce Gymnasium and graduated in 1966 with a B.SC from Wits University.

He joined the computer division of NCR in January 1967 and continued to work for them after returning from Israel at the end of his 6-month volunteering in December 1967. Alan was seconded twice to NCR’s R&D Division in the US and, the second time, completed an M.S. in Engineering Management at the University of Dayton, Ohio.

In 1968 Alan married Beverly Baron and they came on aliyah in 1979 as founding members of Moshav Manof in the Galilee. In 1988 Alan was commissioned by the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations to develop a PC base computer system for rural banks in developing countries. Alan installed his system in 21 countries around the world.

The most common use of the term “counting” in bridgemore ... applies to situations where you are interested in knowing how many cards in a suit have been played by the opponents when one is drawing trumps or establishing a long suit. Learn all about it from Alan Caplan.Close

Alan Caplan arrived in Israel a few days before themore ... war broke out. He was posted to Kibbutz Maayan Baruch, where armed with an ancient weapon, he was assigned to stand guard duty in an observation post beyond Israel’s northern border with Lebanon. Years later, he and his wife became part of the garin that founded the village of Manof.Close

Alan Caplan describes a game that occurred in an onlinemore ... bridge tournament in which he played. He tells the "story" of the game as if it was a contest between the teams of the two illustrious British crime writers, Dame Agatha Christie and Ruth Rendell, Baroness of Baberg. Close

Alan considers just how sophisticated and aggressivemore ... modern bridge bidding has become since Charles Goren’s ground-breaking books in the 1950s. He describes an example he came across in a recent club tournament and says "Competitive auctions just ain’t what they used to be"Close

Alan Caplan discusses the accepted responses to anmore ... opening bid of 1 NT in Standard American and Israeli systems of the game. He refers to old and tested favorites like the Stayman, Jacoby and Smolen conventions.Close

We are all human and make mistakes, but annoyance atmore ... ourselves for an error made in the early play of a hand should not blind us to opportunities for winning lines as the hand develops. Alan describes a case in point to demonstrate such a situationClose

Here’s a challenging situation for bridge affectionadosmore ... - whether to play safe or be sorry. Alan Caplan outlines the difference in calculating match points when engaged in two different forms of bridge: playing in teams or in competition. He illustrates this with interesting hands.Close